missouri

man, i just can't keep up on anything!  this trip happened a month ago but my sister, mom, and i and the two kids went and took a really, really fun trip to missouri to see family and celebrate with  my cousin for his wedding.  it was such a good trip and the kiddos did great (with only a couple of come-a-parts).  i was just going to post some pictures, but i decided to tell about the trip too.  so this ended up a lot longer than intended!
mom , jorel and i drove out on the 10th of August (Wednesday) to Burbank to be able to fly out with Jaana and Stevie.  i was so excited to take a trip with my sister, because these days its usually us traveling alone to see one another.  we left after work so got in kind of late.  jorel had to ask and ask and ask where we were (are we in california?!) about 500 times before we even reached vegas!  he's a crack up.  i also asked him some questions while we were driving to try to keep us all entertained.  here are some of those questions:

What is your favorite song?  its a small world and the pirate song
Who is your best friend?  colin and baby stephen
What is your favorite color? orange
What is your favorite food?  cereal
What is your favorite snack? fruit snacks
What is your favorite movie? thomas and friends: thomas' snowy surprise
What is your favorite song to sing? my life has a gift, my life has a plan, my life has a purpose in heaven it began...
What is your favorite thing to play? thomas
Where is your favorite place to go? disneyland, on a plane, the zoo train
What is your favorite book? thomas and the golden engine
What are you going to be when you grow up? get big and tall
What is your favorite vegetable? banana
What is your favorite fruit? apples
What is your favorite shirt? Lightning McQueen
What is your favorite sport?  i want a fort!
What do you want for your birthday? a present
What job do you want when you grow up?  (with some coaxing this time - firefighter, doctor, etc) firefighter, mom is a doctor
What do you think of mom?  krista!
what is your favorite animal? baby cows
What do you think of mummi? she's nice
What do yo think of ginger?  she's mean.  she tore apart my sandwich

he also ate all of my trail mix i bought and seemed pretty happy about that: 

the next morning we got ready to get to the airport and packed all of our stuff in jaana's car.  after a quick bite at in-n-out, we got there and got through security and then found out that our flight was delayed not just a little bit but 3 hours!  the kids did pretty good staying entertained, but we were all pretty anxious to get onto the airplane!  our schedule that we had planned out (especially jaana for stevie) was totally messed up.  we got to the hotel WAY later than expected and were pretty exhausted after the day was over.  plus us getting all of our bags to the airport was pretty ridiculous.  we were so happy to drop that luggage off!  we were totally "those people"

@ jaana's

@ the airport

we ended up sleeping in a little more than we had planned and jaana was going to help our cousin take the wedding pictures so we had to get another quick bite - this time at chik-fil-a (yum!) and went to the temple to watch the couple walk out and get all those pictures taken.  mom and the kids and i went back to the hotel to let the kids eat and nap and such before the rest of them got back.  we only had a moment before we had to head to dinner - which, of course, we were fashionably late to.  leave it to us!

@ the St. Louis Temple

after dinner we decided it was time for a swim and a shower.  after the shower we decided to have a little mishap.  jorel slipped getting out of the tub and sliced his chin open.  of course at first i thought it was SO bad, but it stopped bleeding pretty quickly so by the time i got back from the lobby with the band-aid it looked better.   but, man, it made me nervous for a moment. as soon as the ban-aid got on he was okay, but wouldn't move his chin.  we had a couple of crying kids that night and it was kind of chaotic for a moment, but its pretty funny looking back on it.  i didn't get a picture of it right then, but i did get one the next couple of days.  

so that next morning we decided to get out and see some things in st. louis since we had a little bit of time before our 4 hour drive to joplin.  we started out with breakfast at this super yummy super cute place called My Daddy's Cheesecake Bakery and Cafe.  after that we went to the zoo to ride the "shoe train."  admission to the zoo was free, but it cost 12 dollars to park and 5 dollars a person to ride the train.  it was all worth it and i think more zoos should do it this way.  we didn't have time for anything else and only saw the top of a tiger's head but the kids seemed to enjoy it. 

@ the cafe                                                                           @ the zoo

after the zoo we went to the arch.  this really is a magnificent piece of architecture.  but we were grateful when we got down underneath it in the air conditioning and were able to get a drink!  we didn't have enough time to ride up to the top (bummer!) but it is a pretty cool place.  the arch was designed by a Finnish man so its really part of our heritage :).  st. louis is really cool because as you drive around and look at all of the different places, you really do see some of the history of it.

@ the arch

we had to get our of st. louis in order to make it to my cousin's reception (late again!) and ended up changing on the way and i was driving so i changed in the car when i got there!  it was pretty entertaining.  but we made it!  we didn't get to see the tornado damage like we wanted to, but drove through some of it and it really is devastating. jorel enjoyed hanging out with his cousin luke and he danced it up on the dance floor.  he also was giving everyone hugs that he thought were hard enough to make everyone cough.  so if you didn't he got mad.  what a goof.

@ the reception

we spent that night and most of the next day visiting with family and celebrating my grandpa's 94th birthday.  he is pretty amazing.  my sister got some great pictures of the day and some 4th generation photos.  jorel ran around with grandpa rick and luke all day.  i'm pretty sure that he wore them out.  i ended up getting really bad allergies so i was walking around with tissue all day :(.  i didn't get any pictures that day but my mom got a couple (notice jorel's half smile because of his chin!  haha):

@ aunt diana's house

after the festivities we really weren't ready to leave all the family but it was time for us to get back to st. louis so we could catch our flight in the morning.  we got to the hotel really late, but we were ready to crash.  in the morning we got ready for the airport and weren't thinking and forgot to fill the rental up with gas!  ugh.  luckily budget reimbursed us some because that was a really expensive rental and that's not including the free car seat!  blah.  we got back to jaana's and she went to the adele condert (jealous!) and i ended up sleeping my little sickness away.

@ the hotel and on the airplane

back @ jaana's (mom took this one too) 

the next day mom and i drove back and then it was back to work.  but it was such a great trip.  i'd do it again!